1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to memory architectures for computer systems and, more particularly, to high performance cache memories for use with computer processors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer processors have attained widespread use throughout many industries. A typical goal of many processors is to process information quickly. Processors often take many clock cycles to access data that is stored in a main memory located external to the processor. Not only do these external memory accesses require a significant amount of time, these accesses also consume a significant amount of power. Cache memories have often been used to enhance computer system performance by providing a relatively small, high speed memory (or cache) for storing instructions and data that have recently been accessed by the processor.